A plurality of storage racks for automotive and vehicular pneumatic tires are available which display tires in their upright position. While an upright arrangement of tires provides random access to the plurality of tires stored thereon, the amount of space required to store tires in this manner is not economical for packing and shipping purposes. Accordingly, racks used for displaying articles or tires are not efficient for packing tires within a container, such as a trailer, for shipment and distributing manufactured articles or tires to retailers.
In addition, racks are known which store tires while stacked in their horizontal position or in the so-called stovepiped formation. Like other known tire display racks, racks for storing tires horizontally can be stacked on top of one another to increase the number of tires stored on a floor area. However, this upward extension of stored tires is limited by the height of the room or container and the size of the stackable rack.
Article handling mechanisms are known which can be attached to a standard forklift or warehouse truck. However, these conventional handling mechanisms are not suitable for compressing stacked articles and/or ejecting the compressed, stacked articles for compact storage in a shipping container or the like.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,116,349 to Durham and 4,354,795 to Dutra, Jr. disclose load stabilizing devices with a horizontally extending webbed member or plate mounted for vertical movement above the fork tines of a warehouse truck. Neither device includes a loading platform on which articles can be positioned or means for ejecting the positioned articles. Moreover, the disclosed stabilizing member or plate is merely a clamp and cannot compress the articles for compact storage
A handling system for interlocking cover or folded cap cartons is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,885,692 to Anderson, Jr. which basically consists of a horizontally adjustable, vertically oriented positioning plate and a hook like member. This positioning plate must be mounted on a specialized frame secured to the front end of a warehouse truck. Thus, this system only can be used for carrying boxes or the like on forklift tines. No stacking of articles or tires, let alone compression, can be achieved with this device.
The typical form employed for shipping tires is a rick, created by stacking alternate rows of tires within a shipping container. Each row of tires is placed at a substantially acute angle; and successive rows are placed at alternating angles, creating an interleaved and interlocking effect. While the number of resultant stacked tires is greater than that achieved by conventional upright or horizontal (stovepiped) stacking, the overall density of a tire shipment is still low in relation to the enclosed air space of a shipping container.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,777,781 to Doster et al. describes an apparatus for creating high density tire ricks in order to increase the number of tires shipped per container. However with Doster's apparatus, the tires must be stacked manually within a trailer or other shipping container and then, employing a specially constructed warehouse truck, vertically compressed to a volume approximately one-half of that ordinarily required. While the warehouse truck continues to hold the previously stacked tires down with a vertical wedge, workers stack additional tires above the wedge platform. After tires have been manually stacked to the roof of the container, the compressing wedge is removed and the resultant tire stacks can be compressed again, if desired. However, several disadvantages are associated with this apparatus.
In particular, individual tires must be handled continually throughout the packing process. First, workers stack a row of tires within the confines of a trailer or other shipping container, then the single-job dedicated warehouse truck compresses the initially stacked tires, and finally the workers stack additional tires individually on top of the compressed stacked tires. This process continues filling the container row by row until no more tires can be manually stacked therein.
Consequently, not only is Doster's apparatus an expensive investment, it limits stacking and compressing to a particular area within a container. As a result, workers are forced to perform the manual stacking inside a hot and sweaty container. Further, even with an efficient packing operation, the number of tires actually compressed thereby increasing packing density is limited since the final step includes manual packing and thus, tires which are not compressed. Thus, in effect, the amount of time required to pack a container with Doster's apparatus limits the increased density since approximately one-half of the tires are compressed. Moreover, the alternation of machine compressing and manual stacking is time consuming.
Therefore, it can be seen that there is a need for an article handling mechanism in which all of the articles or tires can be stacked and compressed outside the confines of a shipping container. In addition, there is a need for such a compression mechanism from which the stacked and compressed articles or tires can be easily displaced from the mechanism into a shipping container. With such construction, the articles or tires could be stacked in one location, compressed and then moved to another location for placement in a shipping container.